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Monday, March 22, 2010

Scott Spadafore

I am quite saddened to say that our friend, team mate and long time contributor to Oracle Application Express, Scott Spadafore, died last night of a heart attack.

Scott has made extraordinary contributions to Oracle Application Express since he joined our team in 2001. Scott also worked tirelessly for many years on the Application Express discussion forum on OTN, where he helped (literally) thousands of customers to become successful with Application Express. His patience and precision were to be admired.

I ask that you pray for Scott's wife, Gail, and their two daughters, at this difficult time.

53 comments:

It's hard to read a message like that. Unbelievable sad news. Scott was such a great person. I remember him as a person who always laughed and helped so many people with APEX on the forum. I also liked to call him Mr. Security.

My deepest condolences to his family and everybody who worked closely with him, especially the AEPX Development team.

I never had the chance to meet Scott, but he personally helped me several times through the years. There was always a solution to the problem and he was there to fix it. When he responded it was the gospel, you knew it was guaranteed to work.My prayers go to his family through this terribly trying time…

I worked with Scott several times on security architectures and implementations. He was always very professional, very thorough and very smart. He had absolutely no ego and for a guy as smart as he, that says a lot. He was always very generous with his time and patient. Prayers to his family. He'll be deeply missed. -david

Such a tragic loss. Scott was one of the smartest developers that I have ever met in my career. His knowledge was only exceeded by his willingness to help total strangers, as evidenced by his track record on the OTN Forums.

I never knew what Scott did for a living as I only knew him as my neighbor and fearless leader here at the community we live in. Scott was a great man. He did so much for our community and helped me in so many ways. He enjoyed correcting my spelling in my e-mails :). I will truly miss seeing Scott riding around the neighborhood on his bike with his dog Hazel. Hazel was his baby and she had just learned new tricks that Scott has taught her. He always contributed to my daughters school fund raisers and would buy Girl Scout cookies from us each year. I just spoke with him on Friday so this is such a sad day for us here in our little community. We will all miss Scott greatly. I don't know what we will do now without him as I can't imagine him not being at our Board meetings now. He had such a caring heart for our community. He was a great cook too!! Rest in Peace Scott. God bless his wife and family. Your friend and neighbor Stacey Smith-Dominguez

I was Scott's close friend, girlfriend, before he married Gail. He was a great person and made a big difference in my life. Although we both married other people - our true loves (mine Joe, his Gail) - we always respected each other and we were part of each other's growing up. Although I haven't seen Scott in many years, he will be missed by all who knew and loved him.

Hi Carol R, it's Steve H. I spoke with Gail on Saturday and she seems to be doing well considering. The girls are 22 and she says they're 'Scott's daughters.' Which I take to mean they'll get thru it. Scott was one of my best buddies for almost 40 years. Never will you find a better, smarter, more decent man.

I knew Scott most of my life, from Leigh High School, working at Amdahl, on our blog and whenever we were able to get together over the year. I am devastated by this. All of these dedications show how wonderful he truly was.

I met Scott at Amdahl, and was very close to him for several years. His subtle but blatant sense of humor always kept me guessing, and was a continuous source of joy. Our children never really knew each other (except one afternoon in our play structure in boulder creek) but they are about the same age, and my heart goes out to his daughters and to Gail - He had to be an amazing father...

I was out of touch with Apex community in general due to the loss of my father around the same time in March...I cannot imagine how one's family and friends feel with the loss of a loved one...My deepest condolences to a great professional.

We surely miss you dearly Scott...A great friend and contributor to Apex Community.

Very sad news. I haven't seen Scott in over 20 years, but I haven't forgotten him. Scott hired me, in 1981, when he was a manager at Amdahl Corporation in the Design Automation Department. If memory serves me right, he was employee number 79 at Amdahl (i.e., one of the earliest employees). I've never worked for a better manager... in fact, no other manager I've ever known has even come close.

About Me

My name is Joel Kallman. I am the Director of Software Development at Oracle, and I manage the development and product management of Application Express (APEX) at Oracle. I've been at Oracle since 1996, and my VP Mike Hichwa and I created Application Express in 1999. My passion is to make customers extraordinarily successful with the Oracle Database, PL/SQL and Oracle Application Express.